Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing

Page: 422-428
Jessy Fenn and Muhammed Siddique (Department of Psychology, Rajagiri College of Social Sciences (Autonomous), Kochi, Kerala and Rajagiri College of Social Sciences (Autonomous), Kochi, Kerala)

Twins are subject to a similar environment and their togetherness experience can lead to increased confidence manifested as increased risk taking or the constant comparison and expectation of similar performance can also lead to anxiety and obsessive compulsive traits. This study aims to find the level of risk taking and prevalence of obsessive compulsive traits among twins as well as the relationship between their experience as twins to the risk-taking and obsessive behaviour. A sample of 100 adolescents, 50 being one of a twin pair and 50 singleton adolescents, from Kodinhi village, known for its high twin population, were studied using the Toronto Obsessive-Compulsive Scale, Risk Taking-18 and data on twin behaviour. Datawas analyzed employing the Kolmogorov Smirnov test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Mann-Whitney test and Spearman's Correlation. The findings suggest that twins are significantly higher in obsessive compulsive traits than singletons and that they are significantly lower on risk taking. There was a significant negative relationship between obsessive-compulsive traits and risk-taking. We also found out a significant relationship between people's comparison of twins and the level of obsessive-compulsive traits in them.

Page: 432-438
Joy O. Thuruthel and Joy R. Tungol (The Graduate School, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines)

Burnout is an emerging mental health concern among an increasing number of college, students and it leads to a variety of adverse consequences on their academic, personal and social life. The awareness and understanding of causes and impacts of burnout are relevant for early detection, the adequate response through appropriate intervention to attenuate the symptoms of burnout facilitating the integral development and welling of students. The study employed a scoping review methodology and selected 23 relevant studies to investigate the causes of burnout and its impacts on the well-being of baccalaureate college students. The synthesis of the results highlighted precipitating and perpetuating causes, academic and psychological, impacts on students' functioning and performance. It also recognized the necessity of psychosocial interventions to reduce burnout, leading to improving their overall well-being.

Page: 446-448
Savitha Kamakshi and M. Ramya Maheswari (Department of Psychology, Ethiraj College for Women, Chennai, Tamil Nadu)

Adolescence is a period where the individuals explore their individuality and tend to seek new and exciting situations more than children and adults. With respect to health, adolescents tend to display optimistic bias which predisposes them to engage less in preventive health behaviors and increase risk taking. One such risk-taking behavior is helmet non-use. Therefore, the present study aimed to determine the extent of adolescents' helmet use and non-use from the perspective of Health Belief Model. Expost facto research design was used. A sample of 100 helmet users and 100 non-helmet users in the age group of 18-25 years were included in the study. An adaptation of Bicycle Helmet Attitude Scale (BHAS) developed by Ross et al. (2010) was used to assess attitude towards using helmet. It was hypothesized that there will be no significant difference between helmet users and non-users with respect to constructs of the Health belief model. Independent sample t-test was used to analyse the results of the study. Results revealed that helmet users perceived themselves as more vulnerable to motorcycle related accidents, had greater self-efficacy and perception of benefits associated with helmet use and paid more attention to cues to action. Helmet non-users had greater perception of barriers associated with helmet use. It was also found that there was no difference between helmet users and non-users with respect to perceived severity.

Page: 453-456
Shreya Gulati1, Dimple Rawat2, Avishek Roy3, Arti Gulati4, and Vivek Dixit5 (Department of Medicine, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi1, Clinical Epidemiology Unit, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi2,4, Department of Anaesthesiology, Pain Medicine and Critical Care, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi3, Department of Orthopedics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi5)

COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected mental health in population across worldwide and therefore India has no longer an exception. Hence, this review was conducted to study the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress among the Indian population during the COVID-19 pandemic. The literature search was conducted on PubMed from inception till 10th September 2021 and a total of 8 articles were included in the present review. This qualitative review indicated in an increased prevalence of mental health issues, which require an urgent attention to address the issue in totality.

Page: 466-469
Jacob Islary (Department of Social Work, Assam Don Bosco University, Guwahati, Assam)

Ensuring good health in communities is a challenge. Field experience shows that community participation in public health governance ensures better health outcomes. It ensures regularity of health workers attendance, availability of drugs, maintenance of the health center, and the reach of health care service to interior and difficult areas. This article is a reflection on the experience of a community where people came together along with the state players to revive a defunct Primary Health Center using a participatory approach. The paper argues that while the approach ensured better service delivery and improved health outcome it also educates the community members of their rights, responsibilities and duties and empowers them to claim their rights with dignity and largely improving the health status. While public health governance is a complex process involving multiple players at global, national and local levels; at the community level participatory governance of health center could include involvement of community leaders, student union members, youth, women, NGOs and community members at large. It could be concluded that promoting participatory governance rather than bureaucratic administration is effective in delivery of health care services in rural areas.

Page: 474-477
Anima Sen1 and Salma Seth2 (Department of Psychology, University of Delhi, Delhi1 and Department of Applied Psychology, Vivekananda College, University of Delhi, Delhi2)

Impact evaluations of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme have been undertaken earlier at the State and national levels by several academic and medical institutions. The present research, too, is an attempt in this direction. The Anganwadi (AW) is the focal point for providing the services, to the children below the age of six years and their mothers, right at their door-step in urban slums, backward rural and tribal districts, and drought and flood-prone belts of the country. Thus, the Anganwadi Worker (AWW) plays a vital role in the effective implementation of the Project. Keeping this in view, it was intended in 1991 to study the efficacy of AWWs vis-à-vis their working conditions in the set-up of ICDS projects in the Union Territory of Delhi. The sample comprised of 400 AWWs selected with the help of stratified random sampling technique from the 22, then functioning, ICDS Projects in Delhi. Seven questionnaires and psychological tests were administered, namely, Information Schedule for AWWs, Information Schedule for Supervisors, Observation Schedule, AWW Efficiency Scale, Sinha's Anxiety Scale, Dutt Personality Inventory, and Thakur and Malviya's Socio-Economic Status Scale. The latter psychological tests were employed in order to obtain an in-depth understanding of the individual AWWs in terms of their manifest anxiety levels, general anxiety and socio-economic status. The salient findings revealed that though generalizations cannot be made, it can be reasonably concluded that a majority of the AWWs were not able to fulfill the objectives of the project due to lack of extrinsic and intrinsic motivating factors involved. The results have been discussed in the light of the data obtained and with the help the observational reports. Several recommendations were, also, proposed so that the AW would extend beyond the delivery of nutrition and immunisation services. That is, taking care of the children's cognitive and socio-emotional development where the parents are unable to do so due to acute problems of poverty, illiteracy, and lack of motivation.

Page: 485-488
Sudhinta Sinha (Department of Psychology, B.B.M.K. University, Dhanbad, Jharkhand)

Traditionally, mental health professionals and school authorities have found school refusal to be a perplexing and challenging problem. Here it is relevant to understand- what is school refusal? School refusal is a condition characterised by reluctance and often outright refusal to go to school in a child who: (1) seeks the comfort and security of home, preferring to remain close to parental figures, especially during school hours; (2) displays evidence of emotional upset when faced with the prospect of having to attend school, although this may only take the form of unexplained physical symptoms; (3) manifests no severe antisocial tendencies, apart from possible aggressiveness when attempts are made to force school attendance; and (4) does not attempt to conceal the problem from parents. Mostly it can be seen in young children going to school for the first time. In this paper it has been tried to differentiate the term between 'School refusal' and 'School phobia and discussed the other related aspects such as its history, prevalence, clinical picture, classification, etiology, risk factors, assessment, treatment and prognosis factor.

Page: 493-496
Shweta Rai, Anjali Mathur, and Anshu (Department of Home Science, Ethelind School of Home Science, SHIATS, (Formerly AAI-DU), Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh)

College environment has many challenges and may present several events and situations which students have no or little skill to cope with, i.e., meeting students from different cultures, peer pressure for appearance, financial pressure etc. The competition for grades, the need to perform, peer relationships, fear of failure, career choice, teacher-student relationship, staying at hostel away from home, irregular sessions, incomplete course and many other aspects of college life can pose real life challenges that may manifest itself as stressful for student. Thus the present study aimed at assessing the stress levels among the university students belonging to different socio-economic groups and to find out the gender disparities in stress levels among university students belonging to different socio-economic groups. Exploratory Research design “and survey method was used to collect the data from the respondents. A total sample of 180 university students in the age group of 18-22 years, comprising of 90 boys (30 each belonging to lower, middle and upper socio-economic group) and 90 girls (30 each belonging to lower, middle & upper socio-economic groups) were selected for the present study. The socio-economic status (SES) of the sample was ascertained using revised version of Kuppuswamy (1962) three factor index of socio-economic status scale. Student's Stress Scale developed by Agrawal (2012) was used to assess the academic and financial levels of stress in students. The results revealed that maximum number of respondents irrespective of their socio-economic group showed average level of stress. A significant gender disparity was seen in the level of stress where in girls showed higher level of stress as compared to boys. A significant variance was seen in the level of stress with regard to the socio-economic status of the respondents where in respondents belonging to middle socio-economic status reported to have higher level of stress as compared to their counterparts from lower and upper socio-economic groups.

Page: 501-504
Sabina Gill and Annahat Randhawa (Bachelor of Arts (IIIrd Year), MCM DAV College, Chandigarh and Bachelor of Arts (IIIrd Year), University of British Columbia, Canada)

Homosexual is a term referring to people who are sexually oriented towards the same sex. Homosexuals face a lot of indifference and discrimination which is known as homophobia. There are several mental and physical health issues faced by these individuals which have led to internalized homophobia. Internalized homophobia is when an individual is afraid of accepting their sexual identity due to intolerance and stigma. In this review of literature, we can see that there is still room for improvement and change despite various rules and regulations imposed. The government needs to impose rules and regulations that will protect their identity.

Page: 512-516
Aarzoo, Purnima Aggarwal, and Shivangi Mehta (Department of Psychiatry, Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh)

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and Intellectual disability (ID) are the neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood associated with significant maladaptive behaviors including aggression, self-injury and severe tantrums, agitation etc. The parents of children with ASD experience greater stress than faced by parents of typically developing children or those with other developmental disabilities. The present research was an attempt to deliver a single session intervention in mothers and study its effect of parental stress and behavioral problems in children. Twenty mothers were recruited, 10 in experimental group and 10 in waitlist group. Single session of SGR was delivered to participants and an audio recording was given for self-practice at home. The outcome measures used were Parental Stress Scale and Behavioral Assessment Scales for Indian Children with Mental Retardation-Part B. Within and between group analyses was carried out using paired t-test and independent t-test with significance. There was significant reduction in parental stress in experimental group compared to participants in waitlist group. However no much difference was evident in behavioral problems in children. SGR is an effective intervention for mothers of children with disability. It may be used as an adjunct or integral component of parental management training programs.

Pages: 522-526
Sanjay Kumar1, V.K. Sinha2, Mohit Kumar3, and Masood Maqbool4 ( Department of Clinical Psychology, Institute of Mental Health, Govt. Mental Hospital Amritsar, Punjab1, Department of Psychiatry, Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi, Jharkhand2, Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh3, and Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Mental Health And Neuro-Sciences Kashmir4)

Epilepsy is a chronic neurological condition in childhood that also has an impact on psychological well-being as well as on the economic burden of the patients' families. In the current scenario, one of the important dimensions related to epilepsy care is to evaluate the impact of epilepsy on the family or caregivers. To find out the burden of care, impact of epilepsy on caregivers, behavioural problems in paediatric epilepsy and relation with the burden and quality of caregivers. Purposive sampling method was used to select 60 caregivers of children (belonging to the age group of 2-17 years) with the diagnosis of pediatric epilepsy. Childhood Psychopathology Measurement Schedule was used on the children with Pediatric epilepsy while as Burden Assessment Schedule and Impact of Pediatric epilepsy scale were used on the caregivers of the children with epilepsy. Statistical analysis was done using descriptive frequency, t-test by applying SPSS-21 version. A significant positive relationship was seen among behavioural problems in children, severity of burden, severity of epilepsy and duration of epilepsy.

Pages: 533-537
Tapas Pal1 and Dipak Barman2 (Geography and In-charge of Centre for Differently Abled Persons, Raiganj University, West Bengal1 and Geography, Raiganj University, West Bengal2)

The time has come when we have to rethink our destructive habits, polluting behaviors, and the nature of dealing with contemporary livelihood and lifestyle. To do that United Nations (UN) has formulated Sustainable Development Goal No. 3 ('Good Health & Well-being'). To clean the environment and to save nature, Govt. of India has developed the concept of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Actually, it is a reform of the Gandhian Mission of Swachhata. Actually, Swachh Bharat Mission is a vast and valid cleanliness program of India to stop Open Defecation (OD) at a public place, to save the women's self-esteem, to reduce the pollution due to Open Defecation, etc. in this way Swachh Bharat is a well-being project of India to make a healthy Indians. Actually, the well-being philosophy is going to be generated by the United Nations and there is no alternative way of Sustainable Development to save the earth. Recently every Govt. should formulate well-being planning to develop their civilization in a sustainable way. Swachh Bharat is not only the project to construct the 100 percent toilet, servicing in India, moreover, but it can also protect the SDG Goal No. 14 ('Life below Water') and SDG Goal No. 11 ('Sustainable Cities & Communities'), and SDG Goal No. 15 ('Life on Land'). Swachh Bharat also indicates to clean the local environment, manage the solid waste. If local people are cleaning their environment properly then the life on land will be saved from different types of pollution and radiation which are generated from radioactive solid items. A case study has been done here on Raiganj Municipality to emerge the actual scenario of the Swacch Bharat and Nirmal Bangla Project. This case study has revealed that people of this town are not aware of the well-being of Swacch Bharat and Nirmal Bangla Project. Total 13 open-air urinations locations have been pointed through field survey and presented proper photographs and map to emerge the real mental health and probable effects on physical health. To success the mission of 'Good health and well-being' only the concept of 'Sustainable Thinking' (the term was first coined by Tapas Pal on 2020) should be promoted at family to global level.